Nekron
History Origin Nekron was an ancient cosmic being who was formed when the Emotional Spectrum was initially shattered and harnessed by sentient beings such as the Guardians of the Universe who claimed the embodiment of the emerald light of willpower. Before this time, there was said to had been peace in the darkness of death but the shattering of The White Light and rise of life led to an imbalance in the universe. Thus, it sought to create its own "Guardians" which manifested in the form of Nekron who sought to return all of existence to its original state. Eventually, Nekron came to be the ruler of a dimension that adjoined Hell and also seemed to border between Limbo and Purgatory. This Realm of the Dead was the location where souls of the deceased awaited passage for their final resting place as well as residence in either the Silver City or in Hell. Due to his nature, the Lord of the Unliving drew his power from the souls and the spirits of all those who had died which were subservient to his will. Despite his mastery over the dead, this Realm of the Dead served as a form of imprisonment for Nekron who sought to free himself from the shackles that tied him to that dimension as he sought to claim more souls. Thousands of years ago, the Five Inversions learned of the prophecy regarding The Blackest Night which foretold the destruction of the Guardians of the Universe. Though not known to many and not even mentioned as one of the forces to bring down the Guardians, Nekron was actually deeply rooted in it where he would make the dead rise in a final conflict to end all of existence. As the years went by, the Lord of The Unliving kept his attention on William Hand of Earth who would become an important part within the War of Light as he would become the manifestation of death within the Emotional Spectrum similar to the Parallax Entity and the Predator Entity. When Atrocitus sought to claim the "Black" within William Hand, the dark presence of Nekron whispered in the human's mind and told him to claim The Cosmic Divining Rod as well as influencing his actions as the super villain Black Hand. Lord of The Unliving Whilst ruling over his realm and waiting for the coming of the prophecy to be fulfilled, Nekron encountered the banished energy of the renegade Maltusian scientist known as Krona. His presence had somehow reached the realm of the Lord of the Unliving where a paradox was created due to an immortal now residing within the Realm of the Dead. This in turn created a rift between dimensions through which Nekron gazed into the universe and saw the land of the living. Though he had desired to claim it, he was a cosmic being that was simply too large to pass through the gap in its current form. Looking to Krona, he found a servant through which he could accomplish his goal and he transformed the Maltusian into an undead being with great power. Giving him an army of similarly restored spirits, Nekron tasked Krona with finding his former brethren, the Guardians of the Universe, and kill them. Their deaths would recreate the paradox and thus widen the rift to the point that eventually the Lord of the Unliving could pass through and claim the mortal realm. Krona ultimately accepted this arrangement as Nekron's plans involved the collapse of the universe, a goal he shared as he sought to recreate it according to his own desires and thus allow Krona to continue his experiment in witnessing the birth of the universe. After journeying through the rift, Krona and his minions succeeded in their tasks of killing several of the Guardians of the Universe. This in turn also led to conflict with their servants; the Green Lantern Corps where several of their ranks were killed. During the battle, Nekron's minions were successful in destroying the Green Lantern Central Power Battery thus succeeding in preventing the Green Lanterns from recharging their Green Lantern Power Rings. Whilst the subsequent attacks were strong enough to shatter the morale of the Green Lantern Corps, it was the Green Lantern of Earth known as Hal Jordan who managed to rally as well as inspire his comrades into attacking Krona with the remaining energy charge left within their Power Rings. Hal Jordan later journeyed into the Realm of the Dead where he incited the spirits of the deceased which included recently killed Green Lanterns into rebelling against Nekron. With Nekron's attention divided, the Guardians were given enough time to successfully banish Krona once more into the Lord of the Unliving dimension and thus close the rift once more. Whilst Hal Jordan was nearly trapped forever within the Realm of the Dead, the spirit of his predecessor Abin Sur aided him in escaping Nekron's grasp and return to the living realm thus succeeding in defeating the Lord of the Unliving. Harbinger of Death Though he was defeated, this did not end the threat posed by the Lord of the Unliving who still desired to pass the boundaries between dimensions and enter the mortal realm. Now aware of other opportunities to enter the living world, he kept his eternal eye for other chances to manifest in the dimension of Earth. He eventually saw another chance to do so when he sent the spirit of Angela Adam to haunt the dreams of her husband Nathaniel Adam. By doing so, Nekron arranged for Adam to be brought to the Realm of the Dead by the astral plane where he could meet his dead wife. As Nathaniel Adam was the superhero known as Captain Atom and was linked to the Quantum Field, the Lord of the Unliving sought to take Atom's soul and pull the Quantum Field into his own realm thereby dragging every living creature into Nekron's dimension. As Captain Atom opposed the powerful cosmic being, he began drawing upon energy to make himself stronger but this went to the Lord of the Unliving's advantage as he was drawing life from Nekron's realm. Other mortals that were connected to the Quantum Field began to feel the agonizing pain of Nekron's touch which meant that in time, he would gain complete control over the old, the infirm, and even the young. Realizing this, Captain Atom changed his strategy and decided to enter into Nekron's body where he absorbed the power of the Lord of the Unliving and was able to defeat him and return to Earth thus ending the cosmic being's plans. Several months later, the Amulet of Anubis exploded which led to the destruction of the Tower of Fate located in Salem, Massachusetts. This led to the creation of a spatial rift that formed a mystical bridge from other planes to converge onto Earth. Nekron was one of many beings that sought to exploit this opening to Earth but he had to battle the demonic god known as Neighbors who also sought to rule the mortal plane. Nekron managed to win the battle against this foe which allowed the souls of the undead to pour through into the Earth as Hell itself was shattered. However, the Lord of the Unliving's victory was short lived as Alan Scott worked alongside Doctor Fate to battle Nekron. This led to a skirmish with the two superheroes before the cosmic force of death could gain full entry into the mortal world. With Doctor Fate's aid, the Green Lantern managed to use his allie's supernatural strength combined with the green flames of his mystical Power Ring to demolish the portal thus denying Nekron his ultimate victory. Sometime later, the mortal enemies of Nekron, namely the Guardians and the Green Lantern Corps, had both fallen at the hands of Hal Jordan who had gone mad and adopted the guise of the supervillain Parallax. Since his last defeat, the Lord of the Unliving's grip on death had grown much more powerful and had absolute control over the spirits of the dead. The recent appearance of unliving beings in the universe had created a new anomaly through which Nekron was once again able to see into the land of the living. Thus, he sought to expand the gap by taking control of the dead Green Lanterns and turning them against the last Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner. This led to a fight between the undead Green Lanterns and Rayner on the fallen planet form known as Mogo. Through the Lord of the Unliving's influence, he was able to bring back Kilowog, Tomar-Re, Tomar-Tu, Adara, Chaselon as well as several others who were forced to attack Rayner under the mistaken belief that he was responsible for the downfall of the Green Lantern Corps. Rayner was able to, however, beat them back leading to Nekron himself attempting to kill the Green Lantern. Kyle Rayner later journeyed into the Realm of the Dead similar to this predecessor Hal Jordan where Nekron gleefully attempted to kill him in order to use his death to enlarge the rift thus allowing him to fully cross dimensions. However, Rayner was able to escape and later had to battle the corpses of the fallen Green Lanterns after which he closed the tear in dimensions once more. Trapped once more, the Lord of the Unliving remained imprisoned within the Realm of the Dead where he waited for his next avenue of escape and attempt at conquering the living. Later, at a concert in Boston, Massachusetts, the neophyte sorceress and celebrity known as Witchfire made use of a powerful spell which unwittingly summoned the Lord of the Unliving to the planet Earth. However, with the aid of Wonder Woman, Witchfire was able to help push Nekron back into limbo and close the rift she had mistakenly opened. The Blackest Night At the time of the Sinestro Corps War, one of the Guardians of the Universe was badly wounded by the power of the Anti-Monitor leaving her body to slowly die and thus become a servant of Nekron. This would become one of the many steps in the fulfilment of The Blackest Night. The next step involved the defeated Anti-Monitor who was hurled onto the planet Ryut by Superman-Prime. Weakened, the Anti-Monitor was helpless before Nekron who reshaped the powerful cosmic being into the Black Lantern Central Power Battery. As the War of Light continued between the various Corps forming in the universe, Nekron's influence began to grow and had William Hand teleported to the Black Lantern Central Power Battery and later deprived the human of sleep to the point that he went insane and killed not only his own family but himself. After this chain of events, Scar resurrected him with a Black Lantern Power Ring in order for him to serve Nekron by gathering the corpses of the dead. In her service to Nekron, Scar began to subtlely interfere in the War of Light and work against her fellow Guardians. This eventually culminated in her openly turning against her fellow Oans by imprisoning them and unleashing Black Power Rings onto the universe which rose the dead as members of the Black Lantern Corps. These deceased beings sought to kill loved ones and steal the emotions they felt with the resulting energy being used to power the Black Lantern Central Power Battery. As it reached 100%, the Central Power Battery was transported from Ryut to Earth and Nekron manifested in Coast City where he rose the dead members of the settlement to serve him. When the superheroes of the world came to challenge him along with the leaders of the various Lantern Corps, Nekron revealed that he was responsible for the various resurrections in the past as part of his plans to end the light. Thus, he reanimated the corpse of Batman and used the emotional connections the heroes had to it to spawn new Black Lantern Power Rings which forcibly took the heroes and turned them into Black Lanterns. Amongst their ranks included Superman, Wonder Woman, Kid Flash, Ice, Animal Man, Donna Troy, Green Arrow and Superboy. With these new additions in his army, he urged them to move forward as the light awaited them. As the battle continued, the Black Lantern Spectre was unleashed against the New Guardians in order to destroy them. However, Hal Jordan released the Parallax Entity and used its power to destroy the Black Lantern Crispus Allen inside the Spectre thus freeing him from Nekron's control. Once he returned to normal, the Spectre joined the battle against Nekron but revealed that the cosmic being had no soul to judge as the Lord of the Unliving was already dead. Powerless against this foe, Nekron simply passed through the Spectre and vaporized him where the undead entity claimed that it was time for the universe to die. His first act to bring about the end of all life was taking one of the captive Guardians of Oa and asking him why they denied feeling emotion when their duty was to protect such life. The only answer the Oan had was he did not know and his final words was "Long live the Corps" whereupon Nekron gutted the Oan and gave his body to Black Hand. William Hand eased the final moments of the Guardian and used his innards to coat the ground around him. This was part of the Lord of the Unliving's plan in finding the Trespasser who had originally come into the universe and gave life to it. As the creatures protective location unravelled, Nekron struck the being with his scythe which caused a collective feeling of pain throughout the universe as well sentient life experienced the strike on the Entity. Ganthet revealed to his allies that the Entity was in fact the representation of all Life in the universe and had given rise to it across the cosmos. After discovering it, the Guardians hid this fact and created a great lie where they said that all life began on Oa and they were the eldest beings in existence. Before Nekron could finish his act of killing the Life Entity, Sinestro charged into the creature's form and became a host to its power. He began to experience its memories and the birth of the Emotional Spectrum but Nekron struck him at that moment that seemingly cut his upper body in half. However, the embodiment of the Life Entity meant he did not die but instead reformed. The Lord of the Unliving was initially prevented from killing the Entity empowered Sinestro by his allies which allowed them to recover. Sinestro then attacked Nekron in order to finish Abin Sur's mission and begin his own destiny. He began by plunging his hand into Nekron's heart and taking it out which seemingly killed the supervillain. However, as his scythe fell, a Black Lantern picked it up and a voice commanded "Nekron, Rise!" whereupon the Lord of the Unliving was restored. He quickly told Sinestro that he thought of Nekron as a living being when in fact he was the embodiment of death itself and thus could not be destroyed just as space itself could not be killed in such a manner. Attacking Sinestro, he stripped the Korugarian of the Life Entity and intended to finally kill it. This time, however, Hal Jordan plunged into the Life Entity and redistributed its power to various Earth superheroes to create the White Lantern Corps. As revealed by Deadman, they targeted Black Hand as he served as an anchor for Nekron to manifest into the living universe and brought him back to life. This act weakened Nekron and to continue their assault, the White Lanterns resurrected dead Black Lanterns into living beings as well as freed the Anti-Monitor from his imprisonment in the Black Lantern Central Power Battery. The newly freed Anti-Monitor immediately attacked Nekron as well claiming that he served him no longer to which the Lord of the Unliving replied that he had no further use for him then. Nekron banished the Anti-Monitor back to his own dimension as he claimed that the living universe was his to rule. Despite doing this task, the White Lanterns use the White Light to strike Nekron's body and it disintegrated, leading to his defeat and brought about an end to the Blackest Night. The Wrath of The First Lantern Nekron was awoken from his prison within the Dead Zone by the recently deceased Black Lantern Hal Jordan. Using Black Hand's ring, Jordan utilized Nekron as a weapon against the powerful First Lantern but was careful in the use of the embodiment of death as Volthoom had tied himself to the Emotional Spectrum. If he were to destroy Volthoom while he still had the Spectrum, the universe would be destroyed along with it. Thus, he used Nekron to separate Volthoom from the Spectrum, and Nekron sliced Volthoom, while booming "You are a nothing; but a GHOST!" After Hal got his Green Ring back, the Lord of the Unliving was banished back to his prison. Powers and Abilities Powers *'Necromancy' : Nekron's position as the Lord of the Unliving gave him a great number of powers that related to death itself. **'Dark Lightning' : He was capable powerful dark energy lightning that was able to kill even powerful immortal beings such as the Guardians of the Universe though Wonder Woman was able to use her enchanted bracelets to protect herself but upon striking them; the lightning sent her flying across a room. **'Necrotic Empowerment' : Nekron gained more power by the number of souls that had died thus increasing his strength. In addition, he was also able to empower others with his dark energy such as he did with Krona. **'Reanimation' : Another power was the capacity to raise the dead to serve him as zombie-like corpses that were subservient to his will though they retained their previous personalities. Initially, he made these undead servants rise with his power but by the Blackest Night, he began to make use of Black Lantern Power Ring's to revive them. Furthermore, it was revealed in the Blackest Night that he was responsible for the numerous superhero resurrections over the years as he prevented them from fully embracing death. This allowed him to forcibly transform such individuals into Black Lanterns by provoking an emotional connection in them. *'Telepathy' : The Lord of the Unliving had demonstrated the power to use telepathy and whisper into receptive minds. Through this, he was able to influence the life of William Hand and gave his secret commands to the fallen Guardian Scar. *'Dimensional Manipulation': Nekron has shown the ability to manipulate the dimensional forces of the Universe, such as banishing the newly resurrected Anti-Monitor to the Anti-Matter Universe after the later attacked Nekron during the Blackest Night. Abilities *Coming Soon Equipment *Black Lantern Power Battery Weapons *'Scythe' : Nekron made use of a long black scythe as a signature weapon which contained a Black Power Battery at its top and a curved blade powerful enough to rip holes in reality and harm cosmic beings such as the Life Entity itself. *'Black Lantern Power Ring' Notes *Nekron shares his name with another unrelated monster from the Pre-Crisis continuity who was also known as Nekron but was a fear parasite that was a foe to the Justice League of America. *After the Sinestro Corps War, it was revealed that the dead would rise in the form of the Black Lantern Corps though its founder was not known. This was the case until an interview with Geoff Johns which revealed that the mastermind of the Blackest Night was Nekron who was the reason the Guardians decide to protect the universe. *In the same interview, Johns states that Nekron was the first evil the Guardians ever attempted to imprison and that he is one of the most powerful dark forces in the universe. *Another interview with Geoff Johns on Newsarama goes further into the concept of Nekron as being the "antithesis of life" and being a manifestation of "sentient space" as well as being a true "Guardian of the Universe" due to him evolving from the universe itself rather than from life. *In the events of FlashPoint, Abin Sur continued to live and failed in stopping Atrocitus from killing William Hand which released Nekron who began consuming large portions of the universe with his Black Lanterns. Trivia *According to Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe Vol 1 XVI, Nekron is pronounced as "NEHK-Ron". See Also *Nekron/Gallery Links *http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Nekron_(New_Earth) *http://www.comicvine.com/nekron/29-45745/ Category:Black Lantern Corps Members Category:Emotional Embodiment